Mirror Mirror 2

Evil lies within the holy and the mundane alike in this impressive collection of horror comics coedited by journalist Collins and cartoonist Gfrörer. Children invite serial murderers into their home, a bird is denied its mate, and a mother and son visit a cave; though these stories are linked by genre, they vary wildly in subject, tone, and aesthetic approach. This is a risky choice that has doomed lesser anthologies; here, however, there is triumph in heterogeneity. Standout work includes Celine Loup’s blurring of the erotic and the cannibal, Al Columbia’s cheerily satanic children, and Gfrörer’s own calm inventory of punishment, irony, and spectacle. A certain kind of erotic horror predominates, and perhaps there are one or two more comics about the ecstasies of sexual possession than the book strictly needs. But this is not a major flaw. This anthology earns that most potent of horror descriptors: it is truly, deeply unsettling. (July)